Dr. Jung Wirsing

Our beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, Jung Sook Kim Wirsing, passed away peacefully on June 19, 2024, after a short battle with dementia and cancer. She was 80 years old.

Known by many as “Kim” she was best known in the community as the anesthesiologist who “Did my epidural!”. It was not uncommon for a stranger to recognize her last name right away many years later and recall that Dr. Wirsing was the only one who could get the needle in quickly and painlessly and helped provide an easy birthing or surgery experience. But don’t even think about poking her with a needle! By the end of her 40 year+ career at University Hospital of Augusta in 2014, she had completed well over 20,000 epidurals there. 

Although her accomplishments as a well-respected physician in the community are perhaps what she is most well-known for, she and her family were most proud of her greatest achievement of being a loving and devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. She and her husband of 52 years, Charles, raised three children, Jackie (48), Robyn (46), and Debbie (45) in a happy loving home. As a doting grandmother to Christopher, Caroline, Andrew, Luca, Joel and Lydia she was often the first one they would run to for comfort. Often, they would seek refuge in Grandma, behind our back, to get away from well-deserved reprimanding. She could never stand to see her grandchildren upset and would go out of her way and do her best to make them happy.

Kim was full of energy and life in many other ways. In addition to taking many exotic family vacations with her family, she stayed active in tap dance, Ballroom dance, and aerobics. She spent endless nights making sure her ballroom gowns had enough sparkles before the day of a dance competition. She even collected a few trophies over the years with her dance partner Val Ganiev. In her later years, just weeks before her diagnosis, she was driving herself to the local YMCA to participate in Zumba and aerobics classes followed by a couple hours in the sauna.

Kim was known for her upbeat and direct (some even say “no filter”) sense of humor and sarcasm, but even more so for her caring and loving heart. Her three younger sisters and family in South Korea remember this vibrant personality as epitomized by her love of singing. She will be greatly missed by all, especially her family. We know that she is now dancing and singing her way through Heaven while looking down on us making sure that we are all happy and healthy as she would always remind us to be.

To honor her love of children and the loss her infant son Christopher who died shortly after birth, the family requests that donations be made to the St. Jude Children’s Hospital in lieu of flowers. 

Mom, Grandma, "Jung Sook" as our dad would call her, may you rest in Eternal Peace. 

The funeral service will be held Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 11:00 A.M. in the chapel of Thomas Poteet & Son. Interment will follow in Westover Memorial Park. 

The family will receive friends Friday evening from 5:00 until 7:00 P.M. at Thomas Poteet & Son, 214 Davis Rd., Augusta, GA 30907.